Really, I think Frederik likes this ring more than Mary does&#33; He seemed to be showing it off a lot&#33; Maybe he wanted the ring for himself?&#33;* :P

Fred does seem to really like that ring, doesn&#39;t he???[/b][/quote]

Actually none of them fronted the ring - until the photographers started to shout : Show us the ring &#33;

On the photosession with the parents before the couple&#39;s pressconferance - then Crown Prince Frederik made some funny faces to the media.

At the end of the pressconferance when the photographers asked them to move closer together and please show them the ring again.

On the rest of the afternoon photos of them - it certainly looks as if both of them kept the photographers&#39; demand in mind

The official photos of them - with the coat - do show the ring - were those taken before or after the pressconferance ?
Adding later :
I can now answer that one myself : Those pics were taken at Amalienborg.

Her Danish skills also disappointed me quite a bit. If I remember correctly, Alexandra was able to understand and answer the journalists questions in Danish, it may not have been perfect Danish but it was Danish none the less. I know that Danish is one of the hardest languages to speak and that reading Danish is a lot easier. That for me does not give her the excuse of not being able to speak Danish quite well. She has been in the country now for 14 months as she has said herself, what has she done in that time to perfect her Danish? From what I heard yesterday nothing&#33; Alexandra had it easier yeas as she knows German but Mary has been living and working in Denmark for quite some time now. You would think that when she realized that her relationship was serious with Frederik she would have begun to take Danish classes such as Maxima did, even before moving to Brussels.

I agree in regards to her ability to speak Danish.

I think she looks wonderful in all the official engagement pictures - there&#39;s not a bad picture in the bunch. Her clothes, jewelry, hairstyle, etc. are all a matter of personal preference and no one will please everyone all the time. Maybe her engagement ring is just what she wants.

Her Danish skills also disappointed me quite a bit. If I remember correctly, Alexandra was able to understand and answer the journalists questions in Danish, it may not have been perfect Danish but it was Danish none the less. I know that Danish is one of the hardest languages to speak and that reading Danish is a lot easier. That for me does not give her the excuse of not being able to speak Danish quite well. She has been in the country now for 14 months as she has said herself, what has she done in that time to perfect her Danish? From what I heard yesterday nothing&#33; Alexandra had it easier yeas as she knows German but Mary has been living and working in Denmark for quite some time now. You would think that when she realized that her relationship was serious with Frederik she would have begun to take Danish classes such as Maxima did, even before moving to Brussels.

I agree in regards to her ability to speak Danish.

I think she looks wonderful in all the official engagement pictures - there&#39;s not a bad picture in the bunch. Her clothes, jewelry, hairstyle, etc. are all a matter of personal preference and no one will please everyone all the time. Maybe her engagement ring is just what she wants.

I wonder if Mary deliberately &#39;blew&#39; her Danish speaking?
And naturally, being the future Crown Princess is a different role from &#39;crown princess in waiting&#39; &#33;&#33;&#33;

With all this discussion about Mary and Alexandra&#39;s mastery of the Danish language at the time of their engagement, I wonder how fluent Prince Henrik knew Danish at the time his engagement to Queen Margrethe was announced? I don&#39;t know much about the Danish language, but I imagine that French and Danish are not too similar the way Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are? And what was the criticism if Henrik was not very fluent in Danish? Were they as harsh as they are on Mary? And how fluently does he speak it now? I&#39;ve read that apparently Queen Silvia isn&#39;t completley fluent in Swedish despite having lived there for 25+ years.

I would say that Silvia is fluent in Swedish with some minor exeptions like picking "en/ett" right (for you who understand swedish) = un/une in french. Thatīs hard to know in swedish, no grammar rules really. She has quite a special accent though, really german and she is easy to imitate in that way

Hola has just come out with a report about Mary&#39;s engagement ring. They pretty much repeated what other reports have said in the past that the stones were from Queen Ingrid. The one thing new that they did report however is that the diamond is a pure (aka flawless) diamond and that it is reportedly worth &#036;12,000&#33; This is completely unbelievable. After having seen the new picture posted by Josefine of the ring, the diamond in Mary&#39;s ring can in no way be worth that much. I do not doubt that it could very well be a flawless diamond but for the size of the diamond there is no way that it is valued at that price. I am around jewelry a lot since I make my own but only tend to use semi precious stones but my mother who is a certified gemologist knows all about diamonds, rubies and the like. I went to check up on some information about diamonds and how much they are worth and here is the break down:

Emerald or octagon cut rubies (finest quality from Burma) = &#036;200 - &#036;250/ruby for a 1/2 to 1 carat ruby which is what Mary&#39;s appears to be from the photos

Platinum setting for ring = &#036;1000 - &#036;1500

Total cost for the ring = &#036;7400 - &#036;9500

The above amounts are how much the engagement ring would be priced at auction houses such as Christies and Sotheby&#39;s. So the diamond can in no way be worth &#036;12000, the entire amount for the ring doesn&#39;t even come close to this. I think this is Hola&#39;s way of selling stories and making people get awestruck at the preciousness of the diamond when in fact it is far from the truth.

Also, the jeweler who made the ring should have known better and advised Frederik that rubies are never mounted in platinum but only in yellow gold as any other metal will destroy the ruby. For those of you who like jewelry, go to the jewelry forum or try looking for photos of ruby jewelry and you will notice that even if the band of a ring is in platinum or white gold, the setting of the ruby is always in yellow gold. This is standard rule of practice for all jewelers. Such a shame as the rubies on Mary&#39;s ring might be destroyed due to this simple error.

Since things have cooled down somewhat (well, at least I&#39;ve had sometime to think about this week&#39;s events in Denmark) I thought it would be interesting to think about what we read and saw. Here is what I took away from the engagement of Frederik and Mary...

First of all I was impressed with the way that Mary handled herself in public. Despite being obviously nervous she did quite a good job with behaving herself like a future crown princess. It takes guts to to what she did and it&#39;s obvious that it&#39;s now having an impact on her. She&#39;s it. Her name will be on the lips of everyone in Denmark and she will be the talk of the royal circles for months and years to come. Perhaps she looked coy in the past but in those photos from the engagement I could see a different Mary. A Mary that was in awe of the sea of humanity that swayed before her. A Mary who knew how she should behave. A Mary that knew that her life as a semi-private citizen was over...a little sadness.

I think also perhaps Mary was feeling a little sad by not having her mum there to share such a monumental moment with her.

I think it doesn&#39;t matter what her hair looked like nor does it matter what she wore; the end result is most important and I think that in the coming months we will see a different Mary as she gets a feel for her role. By her wedding we should, hopefully, see a lovely, capable young woman blossoming in her role as future crown princess of Denmark.

I can&#39;t help thinking that many people have taken a dislike to Mary because they sense that she is more in love with the glamour and the idea of becoming a princess than with the man she is going to marry?

I think she may be like Princess Diana. She appears &#39;fragile&#39; now, but is actually very strong, and has a will of iron&#33;

Time will tell...

I wish them luck, and hope the fairytale is what she expects it to be.

Some very interesting thoughts you pose Julia. Here are my two cents - though bear in mind that I am still quite skeptical about Mary ( ):

The Mary pre-engagement seemed like a brash, driven, attention grabbing woman. The Mary I saw in the pictures the day of the engagement seemed (besides the expected, natural nervousness) almost shy and hesitant. Maybe this was the result of her nervousness, but she didn&#39;t seem so brash or so much like a gold digger on the day of the engagement. She seemed, in fact, quite earnest in wanting to please all those who had stood outside the palace to cheer her on.

And she didn&#39;t seem to like (or bask) in the spotlight as much as I expected her to. Of course it was all probably quite overwhelming but underneath all those nerves there seemed not to be a secret liking or glint of adoration for all the admiration and fan fare for her.

Maybe I am getting soft for Mary ... or maybe I am too tired, but I felt sorry for Mary that day. It all seemed so incredibly overwhelming for her - as it would be for anyone - who was finally realizing the magnitude of the role she was undertaking. It wasn&#39;t just about a girl falling in love with a boy anymore. Or even about a girl who falls in love with a boy and moves halfway around the world to be with him. It was about a girl falling in love with a boy and making a complete 360 degree change in her life, from making a new home for herself, learning a new language, taking on a new (and lifelong) "job," losing her privacy and living under constant scrutiny for the rest of her life.

It is enough to boggle the mind for any one. I have to say that I don&#39;t envy Mary one bit - even if she does "have" Frederik, that nice engagement ring and some nice tiaras and jewels&#33;

The same question was posed at the Scandinavian Royals message board and some of the suggestions for why Princess Benedikte was crying were:

1) happy/glad that Frederik had found love
2) happy/glad that with Frederik getting married there would be an heir to be born to Frederik and therefor succession to the throne (which they would have anyway with Joachim and his sons if Frederik did not get married or does not have kids)
3) emotionally fragile because her husband is ill
4) worried about her son Gustav&#39;s own love life - or lack there of
5) sad at the prospet of losing some of her responsibilties to the Crown now that Mary will be taking on more herself in the coming months and years
6) sad that her mother Ingrid could not be with them to see Frederik&#39;s engagement

It all seemed so incredibly overwhelming for her - as it would be for anyone - who was finally realizing the magnitude of the role she was undertaking. It wasn&#39;t just about a girl falling in love with a boy anymore. Or even about a girl who falls in love with a boy and moves halfway around the world to be with him. It was about a girl falling in love with a boy and making a complete 360 degree change in her life, from making a new home for herself, learning a new language, taking on a new (and lifelong) "job," losing her privacy and living under constant scrutiny for the rest of her life.

It is enough to boggle the mind for any one.&nbsp; I have to say that I don&#39;t envy Mary one bit - even if she does "have" Frederik, that nice engagement ring and some nice tiaras and jewels&#33;

Usually working towards a goal - and this is not meant as a positive or negative, just a statement of fact - is very different from reaching a goal. This could be the start of something exciting for them both or a letdown because the engagement has happened and a lot of responsibilities will come crashing down.